Singapore, and many other cities similarly, beats to an extremely fast pace, with many families having both parents working to bring in an income to support the lifestyle in this country. With that, how many are able to slow down and take a closer look at what they are consuming daily?

Due to the rush here and there, people commonly opt for synthetic or natural extract type supplements to make up for the nutrients they believe they are not getting from their daily food intake. As such, the growth in the supplement market has been steady and on an upwards trend.

Let’s pause here and ponder over it. Does taking synthetic or natural extract type supplements help with our overall health? If so, why are there more and more hospitals in Singapore, yet still having insufficient bed spaces?

1) Difference between Wholesome foods vs Synthetic or Natural Extract

The buzz word in the market is natural. However, do you know that “natural” may not necessarily mean that you get the nutrients in the exact form and package nature intended for you to consume it?

Synthetic is simpler to understand. This basically means that it is made in the laboratory. Hence, not natural at all.

Let’s look at a simple example to understand the above terms. I’m sure everyone is familiar with vitamin C, right?

One common natural source of vitamin C is from oranges. However, our vitamin C pills are typically like the tablets we see on the right of the arrow. How did it go from within an orange into tablet form?

It has to undergo some chemical separation processes. So let me simplify by likening an orange to car. When an orange goes through this process, it is similar to a car going through a big machine that can only recognise tyres and removes them. At the end of the day, we are only left with tyres, the rest are disposed.

Now, would you want to have the whole car, or just the tyre?

For me personally the choice is clear. I’d take the car, the tyre is useless to me as a transportation tool.

In fact, a study done by a team of researchers in the Division of Human Nutrition at the University of Milan, Italy proved that an Orange is better than Vitamin C alone. This is in protecting our body from hydrogen peroxide, a substance known to cause DNA damage through oxidation.

2) Safety in Wholesome foods vs Synthetic or Natural Extract

If only taking synthetic or natural extracts would be as harmless as just being useless. There are instances when they pose a danger to our health too.